Providing Incisive Commentary on the Giants and the NFL

No matter how much you’ve won, no matter how many games,no matter how many championships, no matter how many Super Bowls,you’re not winning now, so you stink.
– Bill Parcells

On the 40 year anniversary of The Fumble Game, the Giants still find bizarre ways to lose to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Giants gave away a game to their arch-rival the Philadelphia Eagles 25-22. New Giants Killer, Eagles kicker Jake Elliott, booted a 43 yard field goal with 22 seconds left, to seal a victory for the Eagles. With this win, the Eagles improve their record to 5-6 and remain alive in the NFCLeast. As for the Giants, more miserable losing. In a game in which the Giants were unstoppable in the first half, they lead 9-0, 12-0, 19-3, and 19-11. This loss leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Big Blue fans. Another loss puts the Giants at 3-8 overall, a putrid 0-4 in the NFC Least, and 2-7 in the NFC. Some people can stop with the apocryphal “running the table” nonsense. This team is going nowhere. They are the bottom feeders of the NFCLeast. The doormat Giants! The Giants stink! And so does Pat Shurmur.

Inexplicably, Shurmur burned his first timeout of the second half with 5:16 left in the third quarter. After a second down play, the Giants had the ball on their own 32 yard line. Why burn a time out here? Giants are up 19-14. And when they come out of a timeout, they faced a 3rd and 18. Okay. So perhaps Shurmur wanted time to discuss with his offensive coordinator Mike Shula a play which can get a first down. Meanwhile, the Eagles are playing with Vinnie Papale’s in their secondary. The hope was for a play to work and exploit the Eagles decimated secondary. What happens? An Eli Checkdown to Giants reserve running back Wayne Gallman which resulted in a TWO yard loss. What does Shurmur have between his ears? A waste of a timeout. Why was this so important? Late in the game when the Eagles were driving for the winning field goal, the Giants spent their last timeout with 1:55 remaining in the game. Subsequently, the Eagles took advantage of Shurmur’s miscue. Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was able to bleed the clock all the way down to 25 seconds to set up the game winning field goal. On the other hand, if Shurmur did not waste his timeout in the 3rd quarter, he would have used his timeouts differently. ( I hope :]) What do I mean? He would have begun using his timeouts before the 2 minute warning. The idea is to preserve time for your offense. unfortunately, this did not happen.

As mentioned, the Eagles were without 3 starting defensive backs. How come the game plan was designed around Saqoun Barkley? Why not OBJ? Befuddled, OBJ caught 5 passes for 85 yards. Like myself, OBJ is flummoxed about Shurmur signing off on a dubious game plan. “Knowing they were struggling (with injuries) in the secondary, personally I would’ve love to attack them. But that wasn’t in our game plan.”– Odell Beckham Jr.

Then Barkley who was stellar in the first half scoring two touchdowns was missing in action in the second half. As I wrote last week, I was concerned about Barkley hitting the “rookie wall”. Did they have a snap count for Barkley? If they did, why stop using him in a close game? Especially, I heard Shurmur and Giants minions spread the word about “running the table”. Use your best players. The Giants had 5 possessions in the second half. Barkley touched the ball FIVE times. Out of the five possessions, Barkley was on the field for three of them. So he played in three out of the five possessions, the Giants could only score THREE points in the second half. Three possessions were punts. One was the field goal. Last one was the end of game possession.

Other Observations:

Turnovers: Giants lost the turnover battle. Negative one today. Eli Manning threw an ill-advised pass before the half. His lapse in judgment, allowed the score to remain 19-11 at the half. Manning has been in the NFL for 15 years. I think it was moronic to throw that pass knowing the gravity of this game. With two straight wins, and at this point it appeared they were on their way on winning this game, he put a damper on a fantastic first half. From what I witnessed, the Eagles were in a cover 2 shell. Instead of being conservative, (Giants were in FG range), he took too much of a gambit. Needless to say, so far this year, the Giants have a PLUS 6 turnover ratio in all three wins. In their 8 losses, the Giants are a negative FIVE. According to Bill Parcells: “The most significant statistic in football-turnovers.”

Penalties: 11 penalties for 91 yards. This is unacceptable. Out of the 11 accepted penalties, Seven were committed by the offense. Including two delay of game penalties and one too many men on the field. This is on Shurmur.

Two point fervor: Shurmur again. Why attempt a two point conversion in the first quarter? This is the second time this year Shurmur decided to go for two points when conventional wisdom tells you to kick the PAT. His team is on the road. Get the sure points of the PAT especially with your kicker being a machine this year. His decision-making in this spot is questionable.

Covering a TE? During the offseason, Can Giants GM Dave Gettleman find defensive players who can cover an opposing teams TE? Once again, Eagles TEs caught 10 passes for 124 yards and one touchdown. Eagles TE Zach Ertz caught 7 of the 10 passes including the touchdown.

Phildelphia FEVER- Last time the Giants won a game in Philadelphia-2013. This was the fraud game. Meaning the Giants beat the Eagles with Matt Barkley playing quarterback. The Giants have not won in Philly in 5 years. Pitiful.

Landon Collins- I know he was on the trading block. What will the Giants do? He was all over the field on Sunday. He had 9 tackles which included 2 tackles for a loss and one quarterback hit. He was the Giants best defensive player on the field.

Like this:

2 thoughts on “Eagles 25 NYG 22”

John FNovember 26, 2018 / 1:49 am

This was the most disccouraging loss of the season for me. Somehow the Giants had a 2nd chance to be relevant in this division, because it is so bad. Right on cue, the Giants choked the chance I didn’t expect them to make the playoffs but at least be at the fringe of the hunt.

The most depressing thing to me is to watch the Giants find another way to lose to the Eagles. What is going on with the Giants never being able to beat them? Something always happens. I am sure I am not the only Giants fan that saw the train wreck coming when Eli threw the interception. Eagles game – here it comes….

The other thing that is probably even more depressing is I am losing confidence in Shurmur. I really like how he works with his players and his approach to the media. But his in-game decisions really worry me. I do not want the Giants becoming another Cleveland or Buffalo changing coaches every 2 or 3 years. I guess that would be “coach hell”.

I think I am going to take a break from watching Giants games live. Time to DVR the game and watch it afterward. I am sick and tired of ruining my Sundays for this team.

With a win, a least we could have watched with interest next week. Dallas against New Orleans, and Philly against Washington. Alarm bells went off with me early this year when Shurmur said in press conference, “We kept fighting and played hard ’till the end.” I was like, Oh no, you didn’t just quote Rich Kotite.

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